Tuesday, 06 March, 2012

Charging up qubits in diamonds

A method for manipulating the charge of nitrogen vacancy-centres in diamond – which are thought to be important areas in the creation of qubits in quantum computers – is reported in Nature Communications this week. The approach, which relies on the use of electrolytes similar to those used in batteries, is a step towards achieving more practical realizations of quantum computers.

Electron spins at nitrogen vacancy-centres in diamond are thought to be promising candidates for qubits in quantum computers. However, their unstable charge states are an obstacle to their successful use in large-scale quantum processors. Jose Garrido and colleagues present a method for manipulating the charge state of nitrogen vacancies using an electrolytic gate electrode. By applying a voltage through the electrolyte, they are able to reliably control the spin state of the centres. Because of their potential as qubits, these results could have important implications for quantum computing.